


La cigale et la fourmi

by Sol_Invictus



Series: Unus pro omnibus, omnes pro uno [2]
Category: The Musketeers (2014)
Genre: Gen, angsty drabble, light parallels with La Fontaine's fable if you squints very hard
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-03-09
Updated: 2014-03-09
Packaged: 2018-01-15 04:15:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 256
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1290955
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sol_Invictus/pseuds/Sol_Invictus
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The minister neither pitied nor hated these idiots mocking him, for they would sing no more when winter came again.</p>
            </blockquote>





	La cigale et la fourmi

**Author's Note:**

> The title comes from La Fontaine's famous fable _The Ant and the Grasshopper_. It tells the story of a grasshopper (a cicada in the French version) finding itself starving to death after having sung all summer without storing food. I'd like a standing ovation to [bittersuites](http://bittersuites.tumblr.com/) for having beta'd my fic and giving to you a (much) improved version.

People thought Richelieu was a machine, working day and night to get higher and higher up the ladder. These people were fools. Fools drowning in their futilities and parties who believed life was an endless summer. The cardinal knew better; he had learned it the hard way. He had been like them in his youth. He had sung all summer, foolishly thinking winter would never come. But the winter _always_ came. His mistake brought exile upon his head and cost him a brother.

When summer returned, the reckless, ambitious, young bishop was gone. He had died in the darkness and the cold of his forced exile. Another man had taken his place. This man was a cardinal, a man made of ice and darkness, of blood and steel. Richelieu belonged to summer no more: he heard winter’s whispers all too well.

The minister neither pitied nor hated these idiots mocking him, for they would sing no more when winter came again. He did pity the king, but his master was no fool. Winter had found him as child, sweet and innocent. The cold had frozen his tears and his heart and the darkness had taken away his hope and his innocence. He still sang, but his voice sounded like snow smothering footsteps.

Louis and Richelieu both heard winter approach but neither feared it anymore: they both had known winter for too long. The thing they truly feared, the thing which kept them awake and shivering at night, was that they might both never find summer again.


End file.
